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A Supreme Court decision last week determined that a large part of Oklahoma and the city of Tulsa remain in a Native American reservation. What are the potential national and local ramifications? Former state Attorney General Rob McKenna joined Seattle’s Morning News to discuss what’s at stake with this decision.

鈥淭his decision started with an appeal from a criminal conviction by a member of the Seminole Nation who was convicted of a sex crime on land that was or now, of course, is part of the Muscogee tribe鈥檚 or Creek tribe鈥檚 reservation. Essentially, this individual argued that he couldn’t be convicted in state court because the state doesn’t have jurisdiction over crimes committed by Native peoples on the reservation,鈥� he said.

鈥淭herefore, he can only be tried in either federal court or tribal court, so that was the genesis of of this case. But it led to the Supreme Court ruling that three million acres of eastern Oklahoma are still within the Muscogee reservation that was created by Congress in a treaty in 1833.鈥�

Does it mean that that they own the land?

鈥淣o, it doesn’t because a lot of the land was sold under a process called allotment in the decades following the treaty being signed in 1833. What it means is that for purposes of criminal jurisdiction over Native peoples, the state and local governments don’t have authority, that only the federal government does or the tribes do, depending on federal law,鈥� McKenna said.

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鈥淏ut it does raise questions potentially about taxing and zoning and who controls the land for purposes of making taxing and zoning decisions.鈥�

So now the question is what comes next? This is a big win for the tribes, but it is limited. Could they use this leverage this to get more power over the land that they once governed?

鈥淚 think that the tribes will almost certainly assert certain sovereign powers beyond criminal jurisdiction over Native peoples. I think that with over three million acres of eastern Oklahoma now affirmed that this still be part of the Creek reservation, it’s inevitable that the tribes will try to exercise some authority,鈥� he said.

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鈥淭he extent of that authority remains to be seen. But if it’s a reservation then in other parts of the country they would have authority. In Washington state, the tribes control land-use decisions within the reservation. For example, they control taxing policy within the reservation with certain exceptions. I believe this is just the beginning of a long series of negotiations and we’ll see if more dominoes fall or not in terms of expanded Indian sovereignty. It certainly raises the possibility.鈥�

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